Project description

Title: Support to the Ministry of Finance in Llinking the Poverty Reduction Strategy to the Budget Process
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Zambia
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Finance and National Planning (MoFNP)
Overall term: 2005 to 2012

Context

Zambia is one of the world's poorest countries, with much of its population living below the poverty line. This is at odds with Zambia’s long-term vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2030 (commonly referred to as the Vision 2030). To achieve this goal, Zambia has adopted a number of poverty reduction strategies in the form of its Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP), and it is now in the process of forming the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP). Both of these plans focus on sector-based poverty reduction approaches.

Objective

The Ministry of Finance and National Planning steers the process of planning, implementing and monitoring the budget in a responsible, participatory and transparent manner.

Approach

The GIZ project promotes the implementation of Zambia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) by supporting the Ministry of Finance and National Planning (MoFNP) in linking the budget and planning processes. Assistance is given to several departments of the MoFNP (Monitoring and Evaluation, Central Statistical Office, National Planning, Economic Management, and the Budget Office) to improve the quality of their data and analysis, to enhance their internal organisation and to manage external relations more effectively.

The project works very closely with the structures of its partner organisation, MoFNP, to promote the sharing of information, views and experiences between the Ministry, GIZ, German development cooperation and other organisations and donors. This is particularly important for measures related to the provision of Poverty Reduction Budget Support (PRBS), including monitoring and evaluation, financial management and statistical analysis.

Results achieved so far

A recent survey to monitor the Paris Declaration reported that Zambia had made significant improvements in terms of ownership and managing for development results. More specifically, Zambia’s capacity to implement an operational development strategy had improved from a ‘C’ rating in 2005 to a ‘B’ in 2007. At the same time, the country's capacity to develop a results-based monitoring framework improved from a ‘D’ in 2005 to a ‘C’ in 2007 (Source: 2008 OECD Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration: making aid more effective by 2010).

The Government of Zambia is now able to exercise effective leadership of its development policies and strategies, and has an operational development policy in place. The Fifth National Development Plan sets out a medium-term development strategy that emphasises the achievement of objectives and the creation of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The Plan also introduced a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, which strengthens national ownership by managing budget resources and channelling assistance into priority areas within each sector. The Plan focuses on agreed targets and uses an improved results-based framework, which emphasises the monitoring of outcomes and impacts. Each sector identifies a series of key performance indicators (KPIs) that it is committed to achieving.

Zambia has now also put in place a Performance Assessment Framework, developed for the Budget Support Group, which is valuable for discussing and refining the KPIs. Within this framework, Sector Advisory Groups, which involve representatives of government, civil society and other stakeholders, play an increasingly active role in monitoring and reviewing progress toward the FNDP targets. The groups also provide important forums for discussing the allocation of budgets and policy changes in the sectors.

Downloads

• The Macro Project in Zambia. An Introduction: Key Facts and Figures
  Factsheet with detailed information about the programme
  en-macro-project-introduction-factsheet.pdf, 0.28 MB (English)
• The Accelerated Data Programme. Building Partnership for Statistics
  Improvement of data quality and strengthening analytical systems
  en-accelerated-data-programme-factsheet.pdf, 0.64 MB (English)
• Managing for Development Results. The Focus of the National Development Plan
  Interaction between MoFNP and stakeholders improved
  en-managing-for-development-results-factsheet.pdf, 0.39 MB (English)

Further information

• The Zambian Ministry of Finance and National Planning
  http://www.mofnp.gov.zm